Smartphones have replaced a lot of different objects and materials on today’s construction site. They’re used for pictures, video and audio recording, and note taking, among many other uses. Beyond the typical functions most phones already have incorporated within them, there is now a significant market of accessories designed to make your phone even more useful on the construction jobsite.

We’ve compiled a list of 5 different accessories that you can buy to further enhance the power of your smartphone for construction.

The FLIR One Pro is one of their most recent releases, which retails for $399 and can measure temperatures from -4 – 284°F. One of the most important upgrades that the Pro included was the ability on the phone even with bulky Otterbox for LifeProof cases attached.

The FLIR ONE Pro is currently available on Amazon for a discounted price of $342 for Android and $373.30 for iPhone. Be sure to double check that it will be compatible with the model of your phone prior to purchasing.

Check out the video below to find out more:

2. The Walabot DIY In-Wall Imager

Walabot DIY is a smartphone attachment that lets you see what’s lurking behind walls. There are obviously other machines that can do this, but this is the first that we know about that is as convenient as carrying your phone.

Currently only able to run on Android devices, Walabot senses pipes of both plastic and metal, electrical wire, and studs behind up to 4 inches of cement and drywall. The device uses magnets to connect to the back of your phone and a micro-USB cord to transmit the data to the app on your phone.

To try it for yourself, you can grab it on Amazon for $99.90. Reviews have been generally mixed, with most people stating that it has a definite learning curve.

I don’t expect these apps to replace a contractor’s traditional tape measure or even a slightly less traditional laser measure, but it could be a useful tool for quick budgeting purposes or for reference.

There are a couple different app makers who make this possible, including Air Measure, which is free, and TapMeasure, which will only cost you $1.99.

4. WiFi Inspection Camera

When diagnosing issues or performing remodels, it’s not always clear what’s behind an obstruction or inside of a pipe, so inspection cameras can be extremely useful. If you don’t need several hundred feet of line to determine why a plumbing line is clogged, a smartphone inspection camera may prove useful to you.

The New WIFI Endoscope Inspection Camera is compatible with Android, iOS, Mac, and PC and provides either 720P or 1080P resolution. It does require an internet connection to work, but connects to your device wirelessly.

With an IP67 rating, it’s built to withstand dusty and wet conditions. For dark areas, 6 adjustable LED lights will provide illumination. The wire lengths vary in size, up to 5 meters, which will make prices vary.

Below is a fairly long review of the inspection camera mentioned above by GuruBrew if you’d like to see how it performs in a few different situations:

5. Stockpile Reports - Calculate Tonnage and Volume of On Site Stockpiles

Typically, calculating the amount of materials in your on-site stockpiles is either extremely time consuming or a guesstimate. Allow your smartphone to take over that process with Stockpile Reports.

Stockpile Reports can not only use your smartphone to calculate tonnage and volume of your stockpiles, but you can also use a drone or plane to get the data.

There are two different applications available to perform these tasks: a lite version for measuring stockpiles that are 4,000 cubic yards or less ($5 for each measurement, $19/month) and a Pro version with unlimited users and measurements ($4,800/year to $42,000+ per year depending on the amount of piles).

The app is only available for the iPhone and simply works by placing two orange cones 25 feet away from each other and then walking the full perimeter of the stockpile. Check out the process below:

In what has become a popular trend for construction technology leaders, Procore recently held their yearly Groundbreak construction technology conference in Austin, TX from November 13-15. These yearly conference allow companies to reach a core of their user base and announce their past and future enhancements, in addition to performing hands-on training sessions with product experts. Construction Junkie was in attendance for this year’s Gorundbreak and we’ve got you covered with all the details.

This week, Procore held their annual construction technology conference called Groundbreak in Austin, TX. Through a series of keynote speeches and breakout sessions, Procore announced their latest releases and plans for the future. I was in attendance this week and I’ll have a full recap of the event coming soon. One of the company’s biggest announcements at this year’s Groundbreak was the release of a new product called Design Coordination, for Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) teams.

CAT phones has made our headlines in recent years by matching their rugged design with a suite of features that no other phone can match, like the built-in thermal imaging, laser measure, and humidity and VOC sensors that the Cat S61 has. Those past phones have been unlocked and compatible with certain networks of the user’s choosing, but their latest release is starting out only available on the Sprint Network.

It’s been a long time coming, but the world’s first 3D printed steel bridge has passed all of its required testing and is ready to be installed. But, before it gets to its final home, it will go on a short publicity tour.

Tracking your construction project’s submittals and their approval status can be a tedious and frustrating process, but thankfully several project management applications are helping solve that issue with technology. At the beginning of this year, PlanGrid announced the release of an automatic submittal log creator tool, which scans through your project’s specification book and creates a trackable log of each submittal. The company has recently added several new features to make the Submittal platform, which allows users to manipulate the submittal log, even more useful.

I’ve mentioned this several times before, but the single greatest thing technology companies can do for the construction industry is to allow cross-platform integration. That’s essentially what construction is at its core, anyway, a bunch of different entities working together for a common goal. Autodesk’s BIM 360, which already integrates 60+ different softwares into its platform, has recently added NoteVault to its list.

When we’ve talked about construction robotics in the past, it’s mostly been about really large machines working on exterior structures, like this brick-laying robot, or this self-driving track loader. A technology institute in Japan is busy working towards bringing robotics to the interior finish side of the construction world with the development of a drywall installing robot.

PlanGrid users may have noticed, or been frustrated with that fact, that some features that are available on the program’s Android and iOS apps are not available on the Windows app. Windows’ Surface tablets have become a popular option for construction teams in recent years, so those users will be happy to hear that the Field Reports function is now available on PlanGrid for Windows.

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